The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus comprising a recording head in which a plurality of light-emitting sections are aligned along a single dotted line or plural dotted lines and the image recording apparatus conducts image recording on a photosensitive material with exposure light emitted by the light-emitting section while shifting the photosensitive material relatively to the recording head.
When image recording is conducted on a photosensitive material by an image recording apparatus comprising a recording head in which a plurality of light-emitting sections are aligned along a single dotted line or plural dotted lines, in such a manner that the photosensitive material is exposed with exposure light emitted by the light-emitting section while being shifted relatively to the recording head, the developed photosensitive material may get a desired even image density, however, there may be problems from time to time that the image density of the developed photosensitive material may become higher or lower.
The above phenomenon was notable when the processing amount was too small. Accordingly, the problems were supposed to be caused by malfunction of the developing process or by malfunction of the exposure control system, and the true causes were not known. However, as a result of trial and error, the inventor learned that the cause of the problems may be that the light emission amount of the light emitting section of the recording head in the above image recording apparatus fluctuates depending on its working history.